Barnes & Noble is spinning off its Nook e-reader business into a new company - which will be a cooperation with Microsoft. Redmond will invest $300 million into the new company, and on top of that, the two companies have settled the patent litigation, which was part of Microsoft's string of mafia practices against Android vendors. I have a sneaking suspicion this will be the end of the line for the Android-based Nook e-readers and tablets. Get 'm while supplies last.

I see this simply as Microsoft buying their way out of a bad situation. B&N were calling for the DOJ to investigate Microsoft's patent trolling while also showing patents in question to the world by refusing to accept the 'licence-deal' with it's accompanying NDA.

Yes, it's a shame Microsoft is able to buy itself out of this, but calling it a win?

If anything this shows other potential targets of Microsoft's patent racketeering that when push comes to shove, Microsoft has no interest in actually going to court and have their 'patents' scrutinized.

This certainly is a win for B&N though, they get $300 million 'investment' from Microsoft into a new joint venture where B&N hold 82.4% ownership. For them, if their 'readers' end up running android or windows probably makes little to no difference as they are making their money off content (e-books).